Intel's pricing, May to September

Cockaleekie soup for mobiles, desktops, Celerons and Xeons

Common Topics

There's some solid chunks of meat in this Intel broth and the positioning of processors, whether they be for mobile, desktop or server chips, speaks volumes for the firm's response to competition. Intel, no doubt, hopes that its strategic pricing will not only speak volumes to its customers, but sell volumes too. All prices below relate to tray product bought in 1000s.

Mobile Processors

While Intel will keep the prices of its mobile chips relatively stable after 28 May, with the next price jump coming in September, it's clear that it intends to benefit from the growth in notebook sales. According to a roadmap we have seen, the price of LCD screens will begin to fall during the course of this year, and that will assist Intel in its goal to push notebooks as the alternative to desktops. At last year's Spring Developer Forum, senior executives at Intel were predicting that while desktops accounted for 80 per cent of the market, and notebooks 20 per cent, those positions will reverse - and sooner rather than later. The last cuts Intel made on its noteboks was on 26 March this year.

Next Sunday, the 750/100 will drop to $562, the 700/100 to $380, the 650/100 to $294, the 600/100 to $316, the 600/100 (1.6 volts) to $209. All of these processors include SpeedStep and with the exception of the last, run at 1.35 volts.

The Celeron mobile prices from next Sunday are as follows. The 650/100 will cost $181, the 600/100 $134, the 550/100 $96, the 500/100 (1.35 volts) - a new intro will cost $134, the 500/100 $75 and the 450/100 $70.

In September, Intel will introduce two additions to its mobile Pentium III range. The 850/100 will debut at $722, the 800/100 at $508. Meanwhile, the 750/100 will drop to $401, the 700/100 to $294, the 650/100 to $241, and the 600/100 to $198.

The Celeron mobile chips will have an additional member of the family - the 700/100 at $181. The 650/100 will drop to $134, the 600/100 to $96, the 550/100 to $75, and the 500/100 (1.35 volts) to $70.

Desktop (Pentium III CuMine) Processors

There will be three price changes between now and September, and some of the cuts will be pretty swingeing.

On 28 May, the 933/133 will debut at $744, the 866/133 will drop 24 per cent to $562, the 850/100 will fall to $551 (25 per cent), the 800/133 and the 800/100 will fall by 31 per cent to $385, the 750/100 will fall 26 per cent to $337, the 733/133 will fall 27 per cent to $246, the 700/100 will fall 24 per cent to $241, the 666/133 will drop 23 per cent to $193, the 650/100 will fall 20 per cent to $193, while the 550/100, the 533/133 and the 500/100 will drop to $163. The rest of the CuMines (the 600MHz jobbies) seem to have fallen off the roadmap, which doesn't mean their dead, but instead means the price stays at its earlier level. The 1GHz Cumine stays at $990, its (rather academic) price since 27 February.

On the 16th of July, the 933/133 drops to $696 (six per cent), the 866/133 to $508 (10 per cent), the 850/100 to $455 (17 per cent), the 800MHz chips to $294 (24 per cent), and the 700/100 to $225 (seven per cent). The rest of the CuMines (the 666MHz and the 650MHz parts) seem to fall off the roadmap. The 1GHz Cumine stays at $990, its (rather academic) price since 27 February.

In September (no date yet, sorry), we finally see a change to the price of the 1GHz/133 chip which falls to $754. September will also see the 600/133 and the 600/100, which have 512K of on-die cache, fall 18 per cent to $163. Other changes. The 933/133 falls 18 per cent to $572, the 866/133 21 drops 21 per cent to $401, the 850/100 drops 24 per cent to $348, the 800MHz parts to $251, and the 750/100 to $241 (eight per cent). The 733/133 will cost $193 (16 per cent) and so too will the 700/100, meaning it is waving a fond farewell to us all as it shuffles off into history.

Celeron and Timna Processors

The new 700/66 Celeron will debut on 28 May at $192, the 666/66 will drop 11 per cent to $170, the 633/66 will drop 19 per cent to $138, the 600/66 will drop 19 per cent to $112, the 566/66 will drop 10 per cent to $93, the 533/66 to $79 (15 per cent), and the 500/66 to $69.

No further price cuts on Celerons until September, when we then see the introduction of the famous Timna processor.

The new 733/66 Celeron will cost $170, the 700/66 $138 (28 per cent), the 666/66 $112 (34 per cent), the 633/66 $93, the 600/66 $79, the 566/66 $69. The 533/66 will then make a graceful exit stage left.

The Timna 666 with 128KB cache will debut at $144, and the Timna 600 will debut at $102. These prices include the whole Timna kit, which includes processor MTH (memory translator hub - aargh) and IO controller hub.

Xeon Processors

On 28 May, the roadmap we saw says that the 866/133 will cost $746, and the 800/133 Xeon $526. In September the 1GHz/133 Xeon will debut at $804, the 866/133 will drop to $622 and the 800/133 to $451. So the rest of the family keep their prices more or less the same for months, and while Intel intros its Itanium processors. ®